Philly adventures Day 2
Nov. 5th, 2011 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bex77I had another wonderful day! I started with an elegant breakfast in the grand dining room of my Bed & Breakfast. I chose the "egg bake" special which was two eggs with chives, romano cheese and parsley gently baked, two sausages, wheat toast and OJ. Yum. The chef chatted about his nine years in the army working at NATO headquarters for some general, and I chatted about theater with a nice couple from Staten Island and a mother/daughter from Paris!
My pal drove us to Chadds Ford. She had a hair appointment, so I hung out at Starbucks then strolled around the strip mall. There was bad traffic so we detoured South into Delaware briefly to get back to I-95. So that made my 6th state in two days!
We had a lovely lunch at Tria Cafe, a wine bar near Rittenhouse Square. I tried the butternut apple bisque and a panino with chicken, Caciocavallo cheese, Piquillo Peppers and Balsamic Onion - a delicious combination of tastes.
http://triacafe.com/cafe/food.php
We strolled over to the Rosenbach Museum and Library, where my pal is the curator. What an amazing place! I wish I had you with me there - they have an incredible eclectic collection of objects and books and manuscripts and furniture and art! There were two brothers who collected whatever struck their fancy and ended up with over 30,000 books and 20,000 objects! A small portion of that is displayed in two homes next to each other on Delancey Street. The most interesting thing there right now is a mural painted by Maurice Sendak. They pulled it out of an apartment in Brooklyn (all 1,400 pounds of wall) and reinstalled it at the museum!
http://www.rosenbach.org/learn/objects/chertoff-mural
I also got to see Bram Stoker's original notes for "Dracula," a lot of original drawings for the "Alice in Wonderland" book, the original manuscript for Joyce's "Ulysses," a Crown Prince of Austria's suicide notes, and both the Shakespeare second folio and a very rare third folio! It is an incredible collection of history, literature and art.
We went to Judy's house briefly. It is down a historic alley, one room wide and three floors high. She has lovingly restored it. So wonderful to put my friend in context.
We went over to the UPenn area in W. Philly. We were early so we camped out at a Starbucks for a few minutes.
We had supper at the very trendy "Pod" restaurant, one of celebrity restauranteur Stephen Starr's places. It's a pan-Asian place attached to the Hilton Hotel, with very space age white plastic furniture and changing lights. It's a loud space. The menu was tough to figure out. They called things odd names without explanation. Do you know what robata is? It was not my scene, and pricy, but the food was delicious. I had the rock shrimp tempura with pineapple and candied walnuts, then the seafood fried rice with shrimp, scallops, lobster and egg. Both were very light and yummy. I got to meet the conservator of the Sendak mural, a very interesting artistic woman. She was interested in my adventures with Theater@First.
www.podrestaurant.com/
They were headed out to an Indian dance recital, which is not my thing, so I cabbed it back to the B&B for a quiet evening. I did more walking today than usual and I am bushed, but so happy to have a friend involved with such an amazing place who could give me an insider tour, and to have adventures around Philly today.
My pal drove us to Chadds Ford. She had a hair appointment, so I hung out at Starbucks then strolled around the strip mall. There was bad traffic so we detoured South into Delaware briefly to get back to I-95. So that made my 6th state in two days!
We had a lovely lunch at Tria Cafe, a wine bar near Rittenhouse Square. I tried the butternut apple bisque and a panino with chicken, Caciocavallo cheese, Piquillo Peppers and Balsamic Onion - a delicious combination of tastes.
http://triacafe.com/cafe/food.php
We strolled over to the Rosenbach Museum and Library, where my pal is the curator. What an amazing place! I wish I had you with me there - they have an incredible eclectic collection of objects and books and manuscripts and furniture and art! There were two brothers who collected whatever struck their fancy and ended up with over 30,000 books and 20,000 objects! A small portion of that is displayed in two homes next to each other on Delancey Street. The most interesting thing there right now is a mural painted by Maurice Sendak. They pulled it out of an apartment in Brooklyn (all 1,400 pounds of wall) and reinstalled it at the museum!
http://www.rosenbach.org/learn/objects/chertoff-mural
I also got to see Bram Stoker's original notes for "Dracula," a lot of original drawings for the "Alice in Wonderland" book, the original manuscript for Joyce's "Ulysses," a Crown Prince of Austria's suicide notes, and both the Shakespeare second folio and a very rare third folio! It is an incredible collection of history, literature and art.
We went to Judy's house briefly. It is down a historic alley, one room wide and three floors high. She has lovingly restored it. So wonderful to put my friend in context.
We went over to the UPenn area in W. Philly. We were early so we camped out at a Starbucks for a few minutes.
We had supper at the very trendy "Pod" restaurant, one of celebrity restauranteur Stephen Starr's places. It's a pan-Asian place attached to the Hilton Hotel, with very space age white plastic furniture and changing lights. It's a loud space. The menu was tough to figure out. They called things odd names without explanation. Do you know what robata is? It was not my scene, and pricy, but the food was delicious. I had the rock shrimp tempura with pineapple and candied walnuts, then the seafood fried rice with shrimp, scallops, lobster and egg. Both were very light and yummy. I got to meet the conservator of the Sendak mural, a very interesting artistic woman. She was interested in my adventures with Theater@First.
www.podrestaurant.com/
They were headed out to an Indian dance recital, which is not my thing, so I cabbed it back to the B&B for a quiet evening. I did more walking today than usual and I am bushed, but so happy to have a friend involved with such an amazing place who could give me an insider tour, and to have adventures around Philly today.
